Liam G

ROMAN SLAVES TAKE JOBS by Liam Gallagher

My Project:
http://www.xtranormal.com/profile/8784187/?published=true


Script for My Project: (Icons Represent Camera Angle Change, Pauses, Actions, Points, Sounds, etc.)

Roman Slaves Take Jobs
by Liam Gallagher
 
 

Future (Today) Man: Hello, Emperor Numerianus! I have come from the future in a time machine.
Emperor: What is a time machine?
Man:
It is a device in which I can travel through time.
Emperor:
Very interesting. What has brought you to the wonderful and glorious Roman Empire?
Man:
I am here to tell you that the Roman Empire will fall soon! It needs to be saved. There are many problems that need to be solved, but right now I need to focus on one specific problem.
Emperor:
That is absurd! Our perfect empire will never fall! Guards, have this man executed, at once!
Man:
No, no, no, ! You don't understand. I am telling you the truth, you have to listen!
Emperor:
Alright, I am listening...
Man:
Thank you for letting me speak. Now, where was I... oh right, a problem with your empire. I am here to talk with you about a problem dealing with slavery.
Emperor:
What is that problem? Slaves are very important to Rome, and although I hate to say it, we are dependent on slave labor.
Man:
That is sort of where the problem lies. The problem is that with the thousands of slaves that Rome possesses, it can be hard for an average free man to find work.
Emperor:
But free men don't like to work for one specific man. It makes them feel like a slave.
Man:
I know. They don't have to work for one specific man, as long as they work. If there are people who can't find work, they will be unemployed. And how will the unemployed man support himself?
Emperor:
With the government dole, of course. Oh wait, if the government has to give out dole to many people, how will the government have enough money for that? I see where the problem is. I should have known.

Man:
Don't feel too bad about yourself. We still have a problem similar, but not exactly, to this in the future. Many jobs in our land are being shipped over very long distances to other places. We call it outsourcing. Labor costs are the main reason why companies, mainly large companies, outsource. The cost of labor in other places of the world is much cheaper than in our land, America.
Emperor:
Why don't you have slaves?
Man:
Slavery was banned. It was not fair to the slaves. Many people considered it to be inhumane.
Emperor:
Do you know the facts about slaves taking Roman jobs in our empire?

Man:
Yes. I know that an average wealthy Roman owned about 400 slaves, and according to a writer from my time, some wealthy people owned from 10,000 to 20,000 slaves. Also, wealthy owners had slaves working on mostly everything, so the lower class could not compete with the slaves (for jobs) and were forced out of jobs. That caused the lower class to become dependent on the government to take care of them. The government couldn't take care of so many people, so this issue was one of the reasons that the Roman empire fell.

Emperor:
That is all true. Some lower class citizens depend on the government for dole. And now that I think about it, the government gives a lot away to its people. And I was wondering... what do your leaders do to try to bring jobs back to your land?

Man:
Our leader, Barack Obama, has tried to prevent outsourcing. He has proposed bills that have gotten rejected. He has a plan to keep jobs in America and make jobs in America. He has even proposed tax relief to companies that bring jobs back to America to discourage outsourcing. The only thing that has really worked is the Put America Back To Work campaign. It gives jobs to the unemployed so they don't have to be paid unemployment benefits, kind of like dole, but will be paid for their work. The downside of all of these is that our economy is definitely not improving.

Emperor:
So you are telling me that very little has been done to prevent outsourcing? If no one has stopped outsourcing, is it even a problem?
Man:
Yes, very little has been done to prevent outsourcing. Not everyone thinks it is bad, either. Some argue, of course, that it takes away American jobs, and they have some evidence. As outsourcing to other countries happens, American manufacturing takes a hit. Over 30 years (from 1979 to 2009), 8 million manufacturing jobs in America were lost. Also, between August 2000 and February 2004, manufacturing jobs were lost for 43 months in a row, which is the longest for a long time. The people who argue that outsourcing is good say if outsourcing lets a company cut costs and make goods cheaply, causing the business to be a healthier business and giving savings to consumers, why shouldn't companies outsource jobs?

Emperor:
I can see both sides. You live one thousand seven hundred years from now?

Man:
Yes I do. In the future, I developed some solutions that could be used for your problem. These solutions are fact-based.

Emperor:
What is one of your solutions?

Man:
I've made a few solutions. You could: Raise taxes on the wealthy for every 10 slaves they have so they would be encouraged to employ paid workers... Or create a law so that the wealthy people had to have at least a third of their workers be paid or else there would be punishments... Or even give tax benefits to people who employ free workers. I made these solutions based on the facts about slaves taking Roman jobs in your empire.

Emperor:
Can you explain these solutions to me?

Man:
Sure. For the first solution of raising taxes on the wealthy for every ten slaves they owned, I made this because there are so many slaves being used in your empire. If more taxes are put on these slaves, some people would not want to pay the extra taxes and just hire a free man to work. If it is necessary for you to change the number of slaves owned to the amount of tax money given, then go ahead.

Emperor:
What about your second solution of creating a law to have at least one third of workers be free paid people?

Man:
For this solution, pass a law so wealthy citizens must employ free workers or not any workers at all. I thought that 1 third of workers being free was a good number, but again, you can alter it if you need to.

Emperor:
And your third solution?

Man:
The third solution is to give tax benefits to people who employ free workers. People in my time like to pay as little as they can for everything. I assume this is true in Rome also, so if you offer tax benefits to the wealthy who employ workers, more people in your empire will find work.

Emperor:
All of these solutions seem helpful. Thank you very much. I will use at least one of these solutions, if not more.

Man:
I hope this will help save Rome!

Emperor:
Before you leave in your time machine, I have always wondered what music sounds like many years from my time.
Man:
Would you like to hear a sample?
Emperor:
Ohhhh yes!

*Music plays, people dance*

THE END
Made and Produced by
Liam Gallagher
 
Sources:

Ferrell, O.C. "Is Outsourcing a Problem, or Is It Good for America?"Http:danielsethics.mgt.unm.edu. University of New Mexico, 2010. Web. <http://danielsethics.mgt.unm.edu/pdf/Outsourcing%20DI.pdf>.


I.A. "Slavery In Ancient Rome." Slavery In Ancient Rome. Rich East High School, 21 Mar. 2000. Web. 27 Jan. 2013. <http://www.richeast.org/htwm/greeks/romans/slavery/slavery2.html>.


Mirza, Sumair, and Jason Tsang. "Rome Exposed - Slavery." Rome Exposed. N.p., 1999-2011. Web. 27 Jan. 2013. <http://www.classicsunveiled.com/romel/html/slavery.html>.


Pine, Marty. "Why Do Companies Outsource?" About.com Outsourcing//. About.com, 2013. Web. 27 Jan. 2013. <http://outsourcing.about.com/od/clouds/a/Why-Do-Companies-Outsource.htm>.

That's all that's in the movie. The movie is 8 min long. I made it using xtranormal.com. There are more of my sources throughout this wiki page that are not in MLA format. Six images are displayed below.



Roman Problem Research:

Romans were very dependent on slave labor. Slaves did almost everything for the wealthy.
An average wealthy Roman owned about 400 slaves, and according to a writer, some wealthy people owned from 10,000-20,000 slaves.
Wealthy owners had slaves working on everything, so the lower class could not compete with the slaves (for jobs) and were forced out of jobs.
That caused the lower class to become dependent on the government to take care of them.
The government couldn't take care of so many people, so this issue was one of the reasons that the Roman empire fell.
Some Romans were shepherds and farmers, so slaves were used for farm work.
Free citizens that were paid to work were often in war and slaves were needed to keep the farms going. This caused the use of slaves to be increased, until there were more slaves than free men who were paid.
This made the lower class not be able to get a job because a free worker was more appealing to have than one who you had to pay. Slaves were much cheaper to be owned than to pay a worker.
This problem lead to a rise in unemployment making the government give out more and more handouts to the lower class, and the government couldn't afford it. Taxes had to be raised in order to pay for all of the people that needed the government to provide for them. To try to solve the problem, the wealthy were taxed highly on slaves so the wealthy let some of the slaves go.

Current Research:

Labor costs are the main reason why companies, mainly large companies, outsource. The cost of labor in other countries is much cheaper than here in the United States. The average United States employee earns much more per hour than a Third-World worker.
Another reason why companies outsource to different countries is so they don't have to pay for Social Security, Medicare, etc.
According to billshrink.com, some companies outsource because, "Overseas countries are aware of this desire and offer generous tax incentives to companies that outsource their operations there. Whether in the form of regional tax benefits or reduced income taxes, such incentives are difficult for companies to ignore in their hiring decisions."
During the 2000s, "big brand-name" companies cut 2.9 million workers in the United States while the companies increased the number of jobs in other countries by 2.4 million people.
As outsourcing to other countries happens, U.S. manufacturing takes a hit. Over 30 years (from 1979 to 2009), 8 million manufacturing jobs in the U.S. were lost. Also, between August 2000 and February 2004, manufacturing jobs were lost for 43 months in a row, which is the longest stretch since the Great Depression.
The failure rate of outsourcing is very high.

"How outsourcing affects the US economy is a matter of great debate. For those to the political right, this practice will have an overall positive effect on the US economy, since it saves money for companies, opens up opportunities for greater entrepreneurship in the US, and leads to more Americans holding higher level jobs. Critics suggest hiring foreign workers has an immediate effect on the US economy by stripping many Americans of jobs they would have performed, particularly by semi-skilled or skilled laborers. The way that companies are taxed based on outsourcing may decrease a corporation’s tax debt and thus decrease federal spending." -Wisegeek.com

According to Stephanie Overby, this is why you should outsource. Why outsource?

The business case for outsourcing varies by situation, but reasons for outsourcing often include one or more of the following:

• lower costs (due to economies of scale or lower labor rates)
• variable capacity
• the ability to focus on core competencies by ridding yourself of peripheral ones
• lack of in-house resources
• increased efficiency
• access to specific IT skills
• increased flexibility to meet changing business and commercial conditions
• tighter control of budget through predictable costs
• lower ongoing investment in internal infrastructure
• access to innovation and thought leadership.

Link to website with a ton of facts:
http://www.cio.com/article/40380/Outsourcing_Definition_and_Solutions


Possible Solutions

Raise taxes on wealthy for every 10 slaves they have so they would be encouraged to employ paid workers.
Create a law so that the wealthy people had to have at least a third of their workers be paid or else there would be punishments.
Give tax benefits to people who employ free paid workers over slaves.


Contact an Expert:

Walter Scheidel- scheidel@stanford.edu
Keith Bradley- bradley.45@nd.edu
Kyle Harper- kyleharper@ou.edu
Stephanie Overby- (Twitter) @stephanieoverby

I sent this email to both Walter Scheidel on Thursday, Keith Bradley on Friday, and Kyle Harper on Tuesday, but so far, only Kyle Harper has responded:

Dear Professor/Mr. (blank),

My name is Liam Gallagher, and I am a seventh grade student at Nagel Middle School in Cincinnati, Ohio. My classmates and I are working on a project where we have to thoroughly research a problem in Ancient Rome and try to find a solution to that problem. My topic is "Slaves take Roman jobs" and I read that you were an expert in the area of ancient Roman History. May I ask you some questions about "Slaves take Roman jobs"?

1. Are there any differences between slaves that took Roman jobs years ago and outsourcing today?2. Did anyone (or Rome as a whole) try to protect this problem from happening? And if anyone did, how did they approach the problem?3. Did any lower class citizens start any riots or violence because of this issue?4. If the government had to pay for unemployed people of Rome because of jobs being taken by slaves, was this problem a major part of the cause of the empire collapsing?

Thank you for your time!

Sincerely,Liam Gallagher
Kyle Harper responded:

Dear Liam,
Thank you for your email.

1. There are differences. Slaves were human property. Working conditions in underdeveloped countries may be unappealing or unacceptable by our standards, but true chattel slavery is rare today.
2. Only one Christian author of the fourth century, Gregory of Nyssa, opposed slavery totally. He argued that it violated the dignity of the individual.
3. We hear of plenty of riots in Roman history, but these were usually sparked by food shortages, not labor disputes.
4. The Roman government had a grain dole for all citizens - rich and poor alike - quite different from our welfare system. I would not say that it contributed to the fall of Rome.

Good luck!


Kyle Harper
Senior Vice Provost
Associate Professor of Classics & Letters
http://ou.academia.edu/KyleHarper
University of Oklahoma

I would like to thank Jack S. because I will use the information in his email received from . This email gave me clarifications. The email he received is on his wiki page.


This is a picture of the top countries where the US outsources.
Reasons companies outsource
Barack Obama has proposed bills to stop outsourcing.
slave market, where slaves were bought
Emperor Numerianus, who I am presenting the solutions to.
Poor Roman people receiving bread.



Sources:

http://www.richeast.org/htwm/greeks/romans/slavery/slavery2.html
http://www.classicsunveiled.com/romel/html/slavery.html

http://outsourcing.about.com/od/clouds/a/Why-Do-Companies-Outsource.htm
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/labor/news/2012/07/09/11898/5-facts-about-overseas-outsourcing/
http://www.billshrink.com/blog/6741/12-reasons-companies-outsource-operations-overseas/

http://www.wisegeek.com/how-does-outsourcing-affect-the-us-economy.htm